New motherboard with IDE support?

timbob

timbob

timbob

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27 Nov 2002
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I've been looking at a Gigabyte GA P35C DS3R as a new mobo for my system upgrade, yet I don't do SATA drives yet. I've got a whole load of stuff on an IDE hard drive that I need to keep and use.

I like the whole DDR2/DDR3 thing, and the 45nm support on the P35C DS3R for futureproofing purposes, but I don't really want to be forced into upgrading my hard disk at the same time...

Is there an equivalent motherboard, with all/most of the features of the DS3R but with 2 IDE sockets onboard? I can't seem to find one....
 
The latest Intel chipsets (P35 and X38) don't have even 1 IDE port natively....they are provided by a third-party controller (eg JMicron)......think the imminentn nVidia boards are said to have 2 IDE ports.....
 
Hmm, I may be onto a loser then. They do appear to have one IDE channel I could use for my CD/DVD drives though - is that right?

How feasible would it be to buy, connect up and install windows on a new SATA drive with the CD drive on the IDE cable, then disconnect that, and plug in my old HDD on the IDE cable, and copy across all my stuff to the new SATA drive?
 
You could consider, as a temporary solution, to get a PCI controller card that supports IDE. I have seen them on 'that' auction site and used them without problem in the past. The brand name of the one that I used was 'Promise.'
Whether it would meet your needs or not I don't know but it might be a choice for you..?

If you do consider the above then a branded one with known working drivers etc just makes life a little easier.

How feasible would it be to buy, connect up and install windows on a new SATA drive with the CD drive on the IDE cable, then disconnect that, and plug in my old HDD on the IDE cable, and copy across all my stuff to the new SATA drive?
Click to expand...

Done without a problem, you do know that you can have a Master /Slave combo on that one IDE port and so your CD drive and HD could be connected at the same time. Just ensure you note your boot order before installing Windows.
 
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As Vimes said, no problem installing Windows onto a SATA drive then swapping over an IDE, have done that myself. Another alternative is getting an IDE to SATA converter, OCUK dont seem to do them but they are definitely available at other etailers, cost around £5ish.

I've been using the GA-P35C-DS3R board for about a month now and am well pleased with it, so am sure it would serve you well!
 
Msi boards tend to have 2x ide their 650i platinum one does i think.
In my opinion you are better off keeping the one ide hard drive on same cable as the dvd until you can afford a sata hd.
 
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ASUS P5N-E SLI
Gigabyte N650SLI-DS4 (the best of these)
MSI P6N-650i Platinum
ECS 650i SLI-T

The Abit 650i board does too, but avoid that as it's poo. Also note that the ECS has the 2 PCIe x16 slots hard-wired to 2 x8 slots so avoid that if you don't want SLi and you have a fast graphics card.

All have 2 primary PATA channels. Also anything based on the Earlier Intel P865 and P945 chipsets have 2 primary PATA channels (lots of mATX stuff). Check out ASRock for nice boards that won't necessarily overclock like mad, but definitely won't break the bank either.
 
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